Workers' Liberty

With engineering work on the Northern line this weekend, management's freeze on stations vacancies is seeing some chickens coming fluttering home to roost.

The power failure to the lifts at Hampstead Station, which we reported last time, continues. Two lifts have been taken out of service altogether due to problems with the ropes.

For most of July, the power to the lifts at Hampstead, the deepest lift underground station, repeatedly failed.

ISS on TubeLines are trialling a new scheme to save themselves some money and squeeze more work from their employees.

Ticket Office staff at Goodge St Station came into work one morning last week to find that their 'Tickets and Assistance' window had been turned into an 'Information' booth.

As part of the refurb at Tottenham Court Road, London Underground have recently taken over a subway that used to belong to Camden Council.

Edgware group staff have discovered to their great alarm that the ticket office safe (SLS) is not, erm, safe.

LUL seems to have a problem fitting safe and comfortable seats in drivers' cabs - and with drivers who complain about it.

Angel has the longest escalators on the Underground. Last week, two out of three were defective.

Sodexho, the canteen contractor, was planning a re-organisation at Morden depot which would have done away with the job of a weekend part-time worker.

Euston station is piloting the ‘Cooling the Tube’ project, which channels cool air into the ticket office, supervisor’s office, some of the platforms and the gateline.

On the Saturday that Oxford Street was pedestrianised for Christmas shoppers - one of the busiest days of the year - there were only two CSAs working at Tottenham Court Road between 5am and 5pm!

It appears that as we write, Kennington station's stairs are unusable, and the only way in or out of the station is the lifts.

A CSA at Euston managed to get 0/100 for SATS. Pretty difficult to do, since you normally get some points for just being there.

Euston staff found out about their new roster when it was posted on a pin board with a notice ‘to take effect from 16th November’.

Eleven reserve CSA’s on the Goodge Street Group were sent letters last week warning them that they could be moved from their current group, which is over-establishment, to one that is under.

Management let slip at one of their 'Northern line meetings' their latest plans to cut costs, which involves ... (no surprise)... cutting back on staff!

When Goodge Street station was opened at the start of traffic the other week, the Online Battery Inverter was down, so the station had no back-up source of power.

It seems that Northern Line management have started to issue drivers with warnings for detraining before going round the Kennington loop.

Yesterday evening, management's failure to fix the Northern line train radio led to the Edgware branch being suspended.

You know that medical advice that you are not supposed to move someone who has a serious injury or health problem?

Following the Euston refurb, there is a new control room, where the Control Room Assistant sits on their own with the monitors and service information, and a new, separate Supervisors' office, where the Supervisors sit.

Female staff at Euston have been kicked out of their female toilets to make way for the men while the male toilets are refurbished.

Remember dynamic risk assessments? That's where management - in the person of a Rostered Duty Officer - can make an on-the-spot decision to assess that a particular procedure is 'safe' even if it's against the rules.

Wide Aisle Gates (WAGs) were recently been installed at Euston.

In a recent one-under at West Finchley, the driver was understandably too traumatised to do anything.

When CCTV cameras fail - as recently at Euston - the procedure seems to be that staff are positioned in all areas of the station regardless.

It seems that on the Northern line, TOMs are using their power to decide what is a one-under and what is a near miss.

Management have again been covering stations without a station supervisor.

RMT has called off its strike dates in defence of Sarah Appleby.